Folks good news,
After short exchange of friendly discussion, APSFILTER author decided
to change program to accommodate better DFSG compatibility.
As for the *postcard issue*, he asked me to pass following message:
> it was never my intention to punish/sue people for their behavior
> for not sending me a postcard. I called it only license, so that my
> wish becomes more "bold/important/visible" to the average user ....
> so to say to "persuade" people to do it.
>
> There is really no intention to start legal action from my side,
> really, you can trust me. But please give me a little time.
...
> Best wishes to all the good people at Debian !
Please give him some time to sort through the details.
I think it is important to remember that these free software authors
are providing software as a volunteer work. We should thank them first.
If we approach them to argue that their license is not DFSG FREE, it may
back-fire at all of us. Please remember expelling so-called-free but
not-so-DFSG-FREE softwares from main archive of Debian is not our objective.
Persuading more softwares to become DFSG FREE is a good thing.
Since Andreas Klemm wanted to discuss privately, I gave my private
opinion to him. I hope my advise was not misguided ones. (See below)
I think key was to identify what author really wants and help him
implement it without contaminating licensing issues. Most moral
requests put into the license from the author which conflict with DFSG,
can be resolved in a similar fashion, I think.
Regards,
Osamu
PS: I proposed following clarification lines to separate legally
enforceable license from the moral requests.
> ---x8
> In addition to the above Licensing terms placed in the legal context,
> this _PROGRAM_ places following moral requirements to the users and
> distributors of the software. _AUTHOR_ guarantees that the violators
> of the following terms will not be exposed to any legal challenges
> from _AUTHOR_. At the same time _AUTHOR_ reserves the right to flame
> those who violates the following terms in public forum :-)
> ...
--
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ Osamu Aoki <debian@aokiconsulting.com> @ Cupertino, CA USA +